America’s Ambassador to the UK has said moves to make the North Sea more efficient are “something to feel good about”.
Woody Johnson spent the day in the North East yesterday, meeting industry representatives including Oil and Gas UK, Chrysaor and Chevron.
Despite the latter planning to divest several North sea assets, Mr Johnson believes there is still a strong future for the industry.
In his meetings, he heard of some of the measures being taken in order to recover the remaining oil in the North Sea more cost-effectively.
Mr Johnson is an international businessman and the great grandson of Robert Johnson, co-founder of Johnson&Johnson.
He was appointed US ambassador to the UK by Donald Trump in January 2017.
Several US firms have a foothold in the region, including Apache and ConocoPhillips, although Conoco is expected to make a full exit from the North Sea.
Mr Johnson praised the ties between the US and North-East Scotland.
“The relationship between the US and Aberdeen is very strong in oil and gas.
“They say that these fields are declining but the numbers don’t show it, it is about the same amount coming out.
“(Firms) are becoming a lot more efficient and effective at getting these wells to produce more… they said there is an enormous amount of oil that is there and they are figuring out how to get it out effectively.
“Their costs are coming down pretty dramatically which I think you should feel very good about.”
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